Stacey Giachino Movies
- 1987
- R
A scientist discovers that he isn't an only child in this effects-laden creature feature whose cast includes screen veterans Kim Hunter and Rod Steiger among a host of other, less well-known performers. John Hollins (David Allen Brooks) is delighted to learn that his geneticist mother, Amanda (Hunter), has awoken from her coma years after she suffered a horrible car crash. During their reunion, he learns that she was trying to put an end to a misguided experiment at her home on the night of the accident. Before losing consciousness, Amanda reveals that John has a brother named Anthony. Later, she's murdered by Dr. Phillip Lloyd (Rod Steiger), an old colleague who wants to uncover the secrets of her research. John travels to his large, run-down boyhood home with his girlfriend, a group of pals, and a mysterious acolyte of his mother's named Melissa (Amanda Pays); the group plans to search for clues about Amanda's research and John's supposed sibling. The young scientist soon ascertains that his mother had created some sort of human/aquatic hybrid, but he doesn't realize that the creature was assembled from his own genetic material -- or that it's still alive in the bowels of the house and picking off his friends one at a time. Meanwhile, something's fishy with Melissa, who skulks around, doesn't sleep, tries to seduce John, covers up details of the attacks on his friends, and seems to have some sort of connection to Dr. Lloyd. Co-directors Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen W. Carpenter previously collaborated on the slasher quickie The Dorm That Dripped Blood and on The Power, a made-for-TV horror film. Pays would go on to co-star in the similarly aquatic sci-fi film Leviathan. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Allen Brooks, Rod Steiger, (more)
- 1984
In this stock, low-budget occult horror film, a tiny 2-inch-high Aztecan idol is stolen from a professor and ends up in the experimental hands of three high-school students who use it in some creative attempts to get in touch with the spirit world. Things start to go wrong when a cemetery worker dies during one of these spirit sessions, and everything goes wrong after the Aztecan god possesses the body of a young man who steals the idol for his own purposes. Special effects create the appropriate flying objects and body bulges where needed, and makeup is grotesque enough by anyone's standards, but these pluses cannot erase the lack of interesting characters or situations or the uninspired acting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Stokey, Warren Lincoln, (more)
This derivative slasher clone is at least clever enough to lift its basic premise from one of the earliest slasher films on record, Black Christmas, setting the mayhem during a nearly-abandoned dormitory just prior to Christmas break. The few students who remain to clean up the grounds are quickly set upon by a faceless killer with everything from a drill to a pressure cooker, thus preventing the audience from having to endure the standard slasher character stereotypes (virginal heroine, class clown, reclusive weirdo, etc.) any longer than necessary. Painfully obvious red herrings abound, and the silly "twist" ending will probably leave viewers wondering if they missed the set-up. Look for Daphne Zuniga (making a less-than-memorable film debut) as a quickly-dispatched victim. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurie Lapinski, Stephen Sachs, (more)
